CYSTICERCUS TENUICOLLIS. 183 



his Laving once found two free, ron-encysted Cyst, tenuicolles in 

 the abdominal cavity of an ape. Eschricht, probably supposing that 

 in the production of ascites, these vesicles, if free, might escape 

 from the abdominal cavity, has forgotten, in the interpretation of 

 Tliorstensohn's case, that this referred to the puncturing of the sac- 

 culated swelling (Echinococcus-cyst of the liver), which, moreover, 

 was in articulo mortis and becoming purulent, and that the punc- 

 ture in question did not give issue to vesicles living freely in the 

 abdominal cavity, but to the contents of the swelling of the right 

 side, after which operation the secondary ascites caused by the 

 swelling also gradually disappeared. 



But although we must cancel this case, Eschricht still retains 

 the undiminished merit of having first proved by description and 

 very well executed figures, that Cysticercus tenuicollis really occurs 

 in the human abdomen, and that in the case described by 

 Schleissner himself, this Cysticercus is referred to. 



The symptoms agree in all essential points with those of 

 Echinococcus, and we may, therefore, pass over them here. 



As regards the structure of this cystic worm, its frequently 

 enormous caudal vesicle, which in animals may attain the size of 

 a child's head, is rendered remarkable by the concentric wrinkles 

 or rings, visible externally, which pass round the worm, and which 

 are crossed by very fine longitudinal strire, so that, when the 

 worm is laid flat upon a plate, and the eye placed horizontally 

 towards the surface of the worm, the whole has a very finely 

 chequered appearance. Even in dead Cystic, tenuicolles, in- 

 crusted with calcareous matter, these concentric rings may be 

 recognised, and the calcareous deposit often forms a true, I might 

 say, plaster cast of the form and structure of this cystic worm. 



It is also to be observed that the wall itself, when the transverse 

 section of the dead Cysticercus is examined, presents a structure 

 consisting of concentric strata, analogous to that which we shall 

 describe in the Echinococci. Here, however, it is so extremely 

 fine and delicate, that we have some trouble in finding it, and 

 can only succeed by examining the transverse sections upon a dark 

 ground, after we have had some practice in discovering it in the 

 Echinococci. Compare also the article on Acephalocysts, with re- 

 gard to which I believe I have proved that they partly belong to 

 this species. 



Prognosis. — A small number of these worms, or one of them, if 



